<p>Nowadays, FPGAs are large enough to host entire system-on-chip designs, wherein a soft core processor is often an integral part. High performance of the processor is always desirable, so there is an interest in finding faster solutions.This report aims to describe the work and results performed by Karl Bengtson and Olof Andersson at ISY. The task was to continue the development of a soft core microprocessor, originally created by Andreas Ehliar. The first step was to decide a more widely adopted instruction set for the processor. The choice fell upon the MIPS32 instruction set. The main work of the project has been focused on implementing support for MIPS32, allowing the processor to execute MIPS assembly language programs. The development has been done with speed optimization in mind. For every new function, the effects on the maximum frequency has been considered, and solutions not satisfying the speed requirements has been abandoned or revised.The performance has been measured by running a benchmark program—Coremark. Comparison has also been made to the main competitors among soft core processors. The results were positive, and reported a higher Coremark score than the other processors inthe study. The processor described herein still lacks many essential features. Nevertheless, the conclusion is that it may be possible to create a competitive alternative to established soft processors.</p> / <p>FPGAer används idag ofta för stora inbyggda system, i vilka en mjuk processor ofta spelar en viktig roll. Hög prestanda hos processorn är alltid önskvärt, så det finns ett intresse i att hitta snabbare lösningar. Denna rapport skall beskriva det arbete och de resultat som uppnåtts av Karl Bengtson och Olof Andersson på ISY. Uppgiften var att fortsätta utvecklandet av en mjuk processor, som ursprungligen skapats av Andreas Ehliar. Första steget var att välja ut en mer allmänt använd instruktionsuppsättning för processorn. Valet föll på instruktionsuppsättningsarkitekturen MIPS32. Projektets huvutarbete har varit fokuserat på att implementera stöd för MIPS32, vilket ger processorn möjlighet att köra assemblerprogram för MIPS.Utvecklingen har gjorts med hastighetsoptimering i beaktning. För varje ny funktion har dess effekter på maxfrekvensen undersökts,och lösningar som inte uppfyllt hastighetskraven har förkastats eller reviderats. Prestandan har mätts med programmet Coremark. Det har också gjorts jämförelser med huvudkonkurrenterna bland mjuka processorer. Resultaten var positiva, och rapporterade ett högre Coremarkpoäng än de andra processorerna i studien. Slutsatsen är att det ärmöjligt att skapa ett alternativ till de etablerade mjuka processorerna, men att denna processor fortfarande saknar väsentliga funktioner som behövs för att utgöra en mogen produkt.</p>

Nowadays, FPGAs are large enough to host entire system-on-chip designs, wherein a soft core processor is often an integral part. High performance of the processor is always desirable, so there is an interest in finding faster solutions.This report aims to describe the work and results performed by Karl Bengtson and Olof Andersson at ISY. The task was to continue the development of a soft core microprocessor, originally created by Andreas Ehliar. The first step was to decide a more widely adopted instruction set for the processor. The choice fell upon the MIPS32 instruction set. The main work of the project has been focused on implementing support for MIPS32, allowing the processor to execute MIPS assembly language programs. The development has been done with speed optimization in mind. For every new function, the effects on the maximum frequency has been considered, and solutions not satisfying the speed requirements has been abandoned or revised.The performance has been measured by running a benchmark program—Coremark. Comparison has also been made to the main competitors among soft core processors. The results were positive, and reported a higher Coremark score than the other processors inthe study. The processor described herein still lacks many essential features. Nevertheless, the conclusion is that it may be possible to create a competitive alternative to established soft processors. / FPGAer används idag ofta för stora inbyggda system, i vilka en mjuk processor ofta spelar en viktig roll. Hög prestanda hos processorn är alltid önskvärt, så det finns ett intresse i att hitta snabbare lösningar. Denna rapport skall beskriva det arbete och de resultat som uppnåtts av Karl Bengtson och Olof Andersson på ISY. Uppgiften var att fortsätta utvecklandet av en mjuk processor, som ursprungligen skapats av Andreas Ehliar. Första steget var att välja ut en mer allmänt använd instruktionsuppsättning för processorn. Valet föll på instruktionsuppsättningsarkitekturen MIPS32. Projektets huvutarbete har varit fokuserat på att implementera stöd för MIPS32, vilket ger processorn möjlighet att köra assemblerprogram för MIPS.Utvecklingen har gjorts med hastighetsoptimering i beaktning. För varje ny funktion har dess effekter på maxfrekvensen undersökts,och lösningar som inte uppfyllt hastighetskraven har förkastats eller reviderats. Prestandan har mätts med programmet Coremark. Det har också gjorts jämförelser med huvudkonkurrenterna bland mjuka processorer. Resultaten var positiva, och rapporterade ett högre Coremarkpoäng än de andra processorerna i studien. Slutsatsen är att det ärmöjligt att skapa ett alternativ till de etablerade mjuka processorerna, men att denna processor fortfarande saknar väsentliga funktioner som behövs för att utgöra en mogen produkt.

Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um processador open source baseado no processador Nios II da Altera. O processador desenvolvido permite a customização de instruções, a inclusão de componentes que possibilitem um estudo detalhado da memória cache, tal como um monitor de cache, definir o tamanho da cache, dentre outras características. Além disso, o processador é baseado na arquitetura do Nios II e implementa 90% do ISA do Nios II, o mesmo está integrado aos ambientes Qsys e SOPC Builder da ferramenta Quartus II da Altera, sendo possível utilizar todo o conjunto de IP (Propriedade Intelectual) e ferramentas disponíveis pela Altera. Assim, este trabalho tem como propósito colaborar com o desenvolvimento de arquiteturas de hardware com uma unidade de processamento configurável e customizável facilmente pelo usuário, uma vez que o seu código fonte em Bluespec SystemVerilog está aberto a todos os usuários, diferente do Nios II da Altera, que tem o código encriptado, inviabilizando fornecer qualquer mudança no processador a nível RTL (Register Transfer Level ). Para o desenvolvimento do processador foi utilizada a Linguagem de Descrição de Hardware Bluespec SystemVerilog, pelo fato de ser uma ESL (Electronic System Level ) que acelera o processo de desenvolvimento de hardware / This work presents the development of an open source based Nios II processor from Altera. The developed processor allows custom instructions, use of components that allows a detailed study of the cache memory, among other features. In addition, the processor is based on the Nios II architecture, which can be integrated into the Qsys and SOPC Builder of the Altera Quartus II environment tool as well as use the entire set of IP (Intellectual Property) and tools available from Altera. This work contributes to the development of hardware architectures with a processing unit configurable and easily customizable by the user, since its source code in Bluespec SystemVerilog is open to all users, other than the Nios II from Altera which has encrypted code, making it impossible to do any changes in the processor at RTL (Register Transfer level) level. For the development of the processor hardware the description language Bluespec SystemVerilog was used, which is an ESL (Electronic System Level) that speeds up the development of the hardware

Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um processador open source baseado no processador Nios II da Altera. O processador desenvolvido permite a customização de instruções, a inclusão de componentes que possibilitem um estudo detalhado da memória cache, tal como um monitor de cache, definir o tamanho da cache, dentre outras características. Além disso, o processador é baseado na arquitetura do Nios II e implementa 90% do ISA do Nios II, o mesmo está integrado aos ambientes Qsys e SOPC Builder da ferramenta Quartus II da Altera, sendo possível utilizar todo o conjunto de IP (Propriedade Intelectual) e ferramentas disponíveis pela Altera. Assim, este trabalho tem como propósito colaborar com o desenvolvimento de arquiteturas de hardware com uma unidade de processamento configurável e customizável facilmente pelo usuário, uma vez que o seu código fonte em Bluespec SystemVerilog está aberto a todos os usuários, diferente do Nios II da Altera, que tem o código encriptado, inviabilizando fornecer qualquer mudança no processador a nível RTL (Register Transfer Level ). Para o desenvolvimento do processador foi utilizada a Linguagem de Descrição de Hardware Bluespec SystemVerilog, pelo fato de ser uma ESL (Electronic System Level ) que acelera o processo de desenvolvimento de hardware / This work presents the development of an open source based Nios II processor from Altera. The developed processor allows custom instructions, use of components that allows a detailed study of the cache memory, among other features. In addition, the processor is based on the Nios II architecture, which can be integrated into the Qsys and SOPC Builder of the Altera Quartus II environment tool as well as use the entire set of IP (Intellectual Property) and tools available from Altera. This work contributes to the development of hardware architectures with a processing unit configurable and easily customizable by the user, since its source code in Bluespec SystemVerilog is open to all users, other than the Nios II from Altera which has encrypted code, making it impossible to do any changes in the processor at RTL (Register Transfer level) level. For the development of the processor hardware the description language Bluespec SystemVerilog was used, which is an ESL (Electronic System Level) that speeds up the development of the hardware

Current radar signal processor architectures lack either performance or flexibility in terms of ease of modification and large design time overheads. Combinations of processors and FPGAs are typically hard-wired together into a precisely timed and pipelined solution to achieve a desired level of functionality and performance. Such a fixed processing solution is clearly not feasible for new algorithm evaluation or quick changes during field tests. A more flexible solution based on a high-performance soft-core processing architecture is proposed. To develop such a processing architecture, data and signal-flow characteristics of common radar signal processing algorithms are analysed. Each algorithm is broken down into signal processing and mathematical operations. The computational requirements are then evaluated using an abstract model of computation to determine the relative importance of each mathematical operation. Critical portions of the radar applications are identified for architecture selection and optimisation purposes. Built around these dominant operations, a soft-core architecture model that is better matched to the core computational requirements of a radar signal processor is proposed. The processor model is iteratively refined based on the previous synthesis as well as code profiling results. To automate this iterative process, a software development environment was designed. The software development environment enables rapid architectural design space exploration through the automatic generation of development tools (assembler, linker, code editor, cycle accurate emulator / simulator, programmer, and debugger) as well as platform independent VHDL code from an architecture description file. Together with the board specific HDL-based HAL files, the design files are synthesised using the vendor specific FPGA tools and practically verified on a custom high performance development board. Timing results, functional accuracy, resource usage, profiling and performance data are analysed and fed back into the architecture description file for further refinement. The results from this iterative design process yielded a unique transport-based pipelined architecture. The proposed architecture achieves high data throughput while providing the flexibility that a software-programmable device offers. The end user can thus write custom radar algorithms in software rather than going through a long and complex HDL-based design. The simplicity of this architecture enables high clock frequencies, deterministic response times, and makes it easy to understand. Furthermore, the architecture is scalable in performance and functionality for a variety of different streaming and burst-processing related applications. A comparison to the Texas Instruments C66x DSP core showed a decrease in clock cycles by a factor between 10.8 and 20.9 for the identical radar application on the proposed architecture over a range of typical operating parameters. Even with the limited clock speeds achievable on the FPGA technology, the proposed architecture exceeds the performance of the commercial high-end DSP processor. Further research is required on ASIC, SIMD and multi-core implementations as well as compiler technology for the proposed architecture. A custom ASIC implementation is expected to further improve the processing performance by factors between 10 and 27. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted